PLAY DEAD (2009) **

Chris (Street Fighter:  The Legend of Chun-Li) Klein stars as Ronnie Reno, the washed-up star of a Power Rangers-style TV show who bombs an audition and then heads out into the desert to clear his head.  When his car breaks down, a creepy dude named Ledge (Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst) gives him a ride.  Almost immediately, he becomes mixed up with Ledge’s drug lord brother in-law (Paul Francis).  He orders Ledge to kill Ronnie, but he convinces the slowwitted Ledge that his old show is real, and he can call in the other stars to help stop the bad guys. 

This is the kind of movie where you want to criticize it because of what it doesn’t do.  Had Klein brought in his friends, and they were dressed as their pseudo-Power Rangers to fight crime, it might have been fun.  Think a low-rent version of Three Amigos. 

Sadly, that’s not what happens.  Instead, what happens is that when Klein’s two actor friends show up, they basically just pose as DEA agents (badly), which causes the plan to go south in a hurry.  The potential was there for this to be something more than your average low budget crime flick, but that’s unfortunately all it winds up being.  It’s not bad or anything as it remains watchable throughout.  It just doesn’t really find its footing or know when to get things in gear. 

Klein fares well in the lead.  You can easily buy him as an actor who just isn’t quite good enough to pull off his charade.  It’s odd seeing Durst in this.  With his salt and pepper beard, scraggly hair, and buck teeth he seems to be doing a direct-to-video version of Billy Bob Thornton in A Simple Plan.  While he doesn’t quite make the character believable, he is definitely the most memorable thing about the movie, so I certainly give him points for trying.  We also have Jake Busey on hand, but he’s really nothing more than the bad guy’s right-hand man and he isn’t ever given anything worthwhile to do.  Likewise, Michael Beach is left high and dry as Klein’s co-star who has now become a soap opera actor and is ill-equipped to tangle with drug dealers.